Tuesday, August 27, 2013

This just in from photo legend Allan Porter - thanks to Google Earth for the image.

Hi guys,

I was messing around on Google Earth today, flying over HB when I zoomed into the area the old strip was. Behold it still lives! The edges of the strip are visible - the grape vines do a poor job of hiding it!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

We
lost a real character from the Hot Rod and drag racing community recently.
Colin “Shady” Lane was a regular at the Blowout and Nostalgia drags and the big
part of the scene for more than half a century. Last time I spoke to him was at
the nostalgia drags a few years ago and after chatting for a few minutes he
casually enquired if I might be leaving the track anytime soon and if so could
I pick him up a bottle of bourbon!

I
snapped these shots of Shady leaving the Blowout a few years ago, manoeuvring
his unmistakable Y block powered "Tom Slick” drag car out of the joint. Shady
will certainly be missed. A couple of years back he kindly sent us a short
history of the Port Rd Drags which we never got round to printing. I think he
originally wrote this for the Lower Hut Rod Club and it may have been printed
elsewhere since but regardless, it’s a great piece of history. Check it out.

“Although it’s over 40 years since the first
Port Rd Drags, the story really starts back in 1962. A group of us Hot Rodders
that worked at Todd Motors formed the first Hot Rod Club in Wellington called
the Charioteers. Meetings were held at Beachcombers Coffee Bar in Oriental Bay
with the18 members. We had no funds and no way of getting road closure for Drag
meets; such things were frowned upon by the general public. I wanted to do more
with my Coupe, so joined the Hutt Valley Motoring Club. They ran flying ¼ &
standing ¼ mile racing at Battersea Rd & Temarie Rd in the Waiarapa and had
no trouble getting road closure. They also held sprints & racing at Levin
race track. The HVMC had 550 members at the time.

In 1966 HVMC decided to run a paired sprint at Port Rd, Seaview – just like
they did in the States, but really a Drag race. I heard about it 3 weeks before
the event, so decided to build a sort of Dragster. The Evening Post 26/03/66
had a picture of the car from the first Port Rd drags. Help was supplied on the
day by the late Keith Whiting, a Charioteer member, and Alan Hare an early
Rodder.

The HVMC decided after the first event that it was too hard to run the event by
themselves so in late 1966 the Wellington Hot Rod Club was formed with the help
of Alan Larson of Auckland & also D.R.Britton of Valvoline fame. In 1967
the Wellington Hot Rod Club supplied bails of hay to go down the centre of the
track to separate the cars. Many Hot Rods ran that day, Keith Whitings 34
Hilborn Injected Ford Coupe, Alan Hares 34 Ford Coupe, Graeme Sutherlands 34
Coupe, Dave Chungs Pink Panther Roadster, Alex Wilsons 283 Chev powered 100E, a
Bristol powered Vauxhall Victor and a Jag powered Stuebaker

So with many Hot Rodders past and present helping, Port Rd as we know it was
born and then the tradition was handed on to Cam County.”

About Me

OnePercent Magazine is an independent publication from Auckland New Zealand. It's produced by Aaron Carson and Andrew Ashton and comes out four times per year. Email us at aaron@onepercentmag.com or phone on 0064 21494484.